Elements of postmodernism in social and cultural life seem to have been dominant in Mediterranean Europe before the concept was even coined in the 1970s. It is argued here that, by focusing on areas of the world with cultures and political histories different from those of the core of Europe and the USA, we can claim that postmodernism is not as new, nor does it follow modernism as distinctively and neatly as is believed. It has a longer itinerary and has emerged, as a culture, in different social formations at different periods. Is postmodernism perhaps a retrieved subordinate culture alternative to modernism, rather than a previously inexistent condition? This question, raised here, is answered only partly.
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